In the nine days since 27 people – 20 of them young children – were killed at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, at least 500 are believed to died in the US because of the America's lax gun laws. Hardly surprising, given there are almost 10,000 homicides (and 20,000 more suicides and accidents) every year because of a nation's zealous faith in the right to bear arms, and its absurd interpretation of how to apply today a constitutional amendment framed more than 200 years ago.